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TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.

For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.

That's the problem with candidates submitting writing samples -- they may have been cleaned up by an editor, or have been produced by someone else. I've experienced plenty of job applicants who proved, once hired, that they could not produce work anywhere near to the standard indicated by their samples.

In addition to asking for a writing sample, I had candidates write a short product intro based on a fact sheet, and had them proofread a short procedure that had a bunch of common grammatical, structural, and logical errors built in. You'd be surprised how many candidates who claimed to have a "keen eye for detail" who missed a really obvious typo in the procedure title, did not correct instances of awkward passive-voice constructions, and missed a lot of inconsistences in names and formatting.

The tests gave me a more accurate idea of the candidates' real skill level and tech writing knowledge, and allowed for me to discuss what areas they might need to work on (and their willingness to learn and take editorial feedback) during the interview.

I recently took a full-time position as the first tech writer in IT at a 40+ year old manufacturing company. As you can imagine, we have a lot of work ahead of us sorting out all the documentation.

After seeing what I was able to do for the IT department in the 3 months since I was hired, the director of another department is considering hiring a tech writer. My boss volunteered me to sit in on the interviews.

I won't be managing this person (as far as I know, since they'll be in a different department) but we will be expected to collaborate with each other and with the other tech writer who was hired the same day I was (in yet another department).

Do any of you have experience hiring other tech writers and could you give me any advice?

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Doc-To-Help: The Quickest Way to Author and Publish Online Help, Policy & Procedure Guides, eBooks, and more using Microsoft Word | http://bit.ly/doctohelp2015

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